Susannah Beatty-Tucker's blog

Since it was first announced in February 2017 that Plum Analytics was joining Elsevier, the Plum Analytics and Scopus teams have been working together to integrate PlumX Metrics as the primary source of article-level metrics on Scopus (along with other Elsevier platforms and products), replacing metrics previously provided by Altmetrics.com. With the integration now just around the corner, here is an overview of what PlumX Metrics are to prepare you for the type of insights you will soon be able to find on Scopus.

PlumX Metrics is Plum Analytics’ comprehensive, item-level metrics that provide insights into the ways people interact with individual pieces of research output (articles, conference proceedings, book chapters, and many more) in the online environment. To support like-with-like analysis and help make sense of the huge amounts of data involved (check out the metrics sources here), they are divided into five categories:

With over 69 million items indexed on Scopus, how can you find and organize relevant research and keep updated on new material, so you have more time for other activities? In this tip & trick, learn about some key Scopus features that can help.

Getting to the right results

Whether you jump right in and start with a broad search on Scopus, or you prefer a more targeted and specific search approach, some key search tips can help save you time and lead you to more relevant results. Here are a few to start you off:

Use double quotations to search phrases. For example, if in the search box you typed: solar energy without quotations, Scopus returns over 168,400 document results. However, if you include the double quotations: “solar energy,” Scopus will look for items where “solar energy” is used as a phrase, reducing your results to just over 80,700 documents.

Having access to a robust network of experts provides companies with a leg up in pursuing the most innovative approaches to drug discovery. When exploring uncharted territories such as new therapeutic areas or new molecules, the most competitive companies tap into the best minds in science that will guide them to the right experts to collaborate with and which avenues to pursue. This is where comprehensive access to literature and research trends matters.

“For midsize companies to compete with larger companies that have greater resources, it’s all about agility and creating the most innovative approaches.”

– Calliope Saito, Pharmaceutical R&D Executive

In a recent case study, an R&D executive at a midmarket pharma company describes how her team’s efforts to move compounds successfully through the pre-clinical phase often requires identifying and leveraging external expertise.

When a journal is first suggested for Scopus, it must undergo a rigorous evaluation and selection process to ensure it meets all the high-quality title selection criteria required for acceptance. However, journals must also demonstrate the ability to maintain their quality status year over year. This is where the Re-evaluation program comes in to play. Now in its second full year, this year’s annual title evaluation has been completed and journals that must undergo the full Re-evaluation process have been notified.

The Re-evaluation process involves a multi-step and evaluation process used to determine whether or not it still meets all the quality criteria required to remain indexed by Scopus. You can read more details about how title Re-evaluation works in this earlier post.

The path for those titles discontinued as of January 1, 2017 began in 2015 during the annual title evaluation process — a process that all 22,000+ titles indexed by Scopus undergo.

CiteScore 2016 values and CiteScore Tracker 2017 are now available on Scopus:

CiteScore 2016 annual values are now available for over 22,600 titles on both Scopus and journalmetrics.scopus.com. Additionally, CiteScore Tracker 2017 is now initiated, meaning you can start tracking the progress of how a title’s CiteScore 2017 value is building throughout the year. The latest data was calculated on May 23, 2017. Read more details about the improvements made to CiteScore metrics over the past 6 months — including the ability to view the data behind a title’s calculation.

Over the past six months, a number of significant improvements to CiteScoreTM metrics have been made based on your feedback. Here's a quick summary of those improvements – from the initial launch (December 2016) to today's release of the new CiteScore 2016 values:

Transparency – The most notable improvement is the increased transparency of the metrics, enabling you, whether or not you have access to Scopus, to validate any CiteScore value by clicking into the numerator (citations) and denominator (documents).

Corrections to journal subject area classifications – through publisher feedback we have updated the classifications given to over 150 titles to better reflect their areas of research.

Seamless CiteScore calculations for title changes – when a title changes its name, the new title will receive a CiteScore when the next annual values are published, using documents (where applicable) from both the old and new title names.

company can save in developing a product, the better the chances for success become.

In the “Case Study: Developing a Superior Technology” meet Ian Flemini,” a Senior Technologist and R&D Manager at a chemical company. He was asked to lead a team in developing a new, large-scale industrial method of separating gases. The goal was to create a gas separation technology based on a ceramic membrane along with an industrial process that would reduce the cost of producing various gases. The key was to save as much development time as possible.

The team found Scopus could help in two major ways during the development process. The first was in helping them to avoid reinventing the wheel.

If you have recently used “Help” on Scopus, you probably noticed a significant change — Scopus has migrated its Help platform to a new Support Center. Whether you are seeking instructions on how a specific feature works, looking for onboarding resources or needing to request a correction, the new Support Center is designed to help you find learning resources and answers to frequently asked questions, quicker and easier. As part of this migration, some of the benefits include:

Improved search functionality

New look and feel

New contact form to connect you to the right support

How it works on Scopus

Although you still access the support pages in the same way (click on “Help” from the navigation bar), the page that opens will now look and feel different — in a way that is easier to read, navigate and search for information.

For metrics to be understood and trusted, clarity into how they work and are calculated is important. When CiteScore was first introduced, we shared the methodology behind the calculation. Now we are taking transparency a step further by enabling anyone to validate any CiteScore value by clicking into the numerator (citations) and denominator (documents) for free.

What this means for you.

When viewing the Source details page for a title on Scopus, you can see the data behind the CiteScore calculation by clicking on either the citation or document count. This opens a window where you can toggle between the list of documents and citations. In addition, if you’re institution subscribes to Scopus and you are logged in, you can even export the information into a CSV file.